


Here I Love You

by GoldenMoon_42



Series: IronStrange Week 2019 [2]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Butterflies, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), IronStrange Week 2019, M/M, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-06 15:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18854053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenMoon_42/pseuds/GoldenMoon_42
Summary: IronStrange Week 2019 Day 2 (5/21): ButterfliesLooking up from his tinkering, Tony saw it, a being so small compared to other creatures, but still beautiful, its bright orange spotted wings helping it flutter above his head gracefully, a few more of the butterflies joining it.





	Here I Love You

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [【授翻】Here I Love You/我在此，爱你](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19148026) by [Clover_cherik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clover_cherik/pseuds/Clover_cherik)



> IronStrange Week 2019 Day 2 (5/21) : Butterflies
> 
> This ignores the ending of Endgame. Everyone is alive and happy in this even though most of the characters aren't mentioned.
> 
> The title of the fic comes from Pablo Neruda's 20 Love Poems and A Song of Despair: Poem 18 Here I Love You. This is also the poem that Stephen reads. You can find it [here](https://allpoetry.com/Here-I-Love-You).
> 
> Tony's Stark Mansion looks like [this](https://www.trendir.com/70s-home-transformed-into-modern-masterpiece/).
> 
> Thanks to Kira for betaing this for me!!!!

_The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough._

_-Rabindranath Tagore_

 

* * *

Today was just a normal summer day for Stephen, resting in his office room in Kamar-Taj, the afternoon sun shining through the windows and onto his face. He had spent his day alternating between the New York Sanctum and Kamar-Taj, going over relics and daily tasks as well as teaching the novices the Mystic Arts. As he taught the novices, Stephen spotted some of the butterflies that were native to Kathmandu, and he was entranced. Stephen loved butterflies for as long as he could remember, having learned everything about them.

Butterflies were beautiful, fragile and ephemeral, and Stephen knew that something lasting for such a  short time needed to be cherished. Maybe that was why he had used that spell when Thanos had thrown a black hole at him. In a way, the butterflies reminded Stephen of himself, going through a horrifying change but still enduring what life had put him through and hoping for a new chance in life, to find some kind of meaning. He found his chance when he went to Kamar-Taj and another one when he met Tony Stark.

In a way, the butterflies were the physical embodiment of Stephen’s love for Tony. Stephen's love for Tony, which had evolved/developed from annoyance to an almost all-encompassing love. Maybe that was why Stephen had also chosen butterflies as a means/as a medium to send Tony love notes. Stephen was not a man of many words, but he was fond of poetry from many writers. Lifting his trembling scarred hands, Stephen conjured butterflies, using a spell that he was very familiar with. One by one, butterflies began to form, fluttering above Stephen’s head, the corners of Stephen’s mouth quirking up as he admired the butterflies. Slowly and gently he lifted a hand at face level and waited for one of the butterflies to come to him. Stephen brought the butterfly, which had landed on his hand, closer to his face, and with his magic, softly blew a vaguely glowing cloud of glittering dust on the butterfly, giving the little creature an almost blue-green shine. Stephen did the same to the other butterflies and with a wave of his hands, quietly opened a portal to Tony’s personal lab, at the Stark mansion.

 

* * *

 

 

As Tony was working in his lab at the mansion, something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. However, as he was used to little distractions, Tony ignored it, thinking it was Dum-E being his usual clumsy self. Once more, that something caught his attention and Tony was intent on ignoring it again when it flew close to his ears and he caught a sniff of a faint fragrance. It was a smell that reminded him of home, of love, of his family, but most importantly it reminded him of Stephen. Looking up from his tinkering, Tony saw it, a being so small compared to other creatures, but still beautiful, its bright orange spotted wings helping it flutter above his head gracefully, a few more of the butterflies joining it. Tony gently put down his tools, took off his glasses and focused on the butterflies. As they flew up higher and higher to form a kaleidoscope, Tony couldn't help but smile. When they came back down to his head, the smile grew bigger, lighting up his face, the twinkle in his eyes brightening and a small laugh beginning to bubble from his lips.

Tony’s smile seemed to widen as the trails of light that the butterflies, painted ladies from what he could tell, left while flying around him spun in a bright circle. The light specks were different shades of blue and greens, floating up above him, reminiscent of the light show that his holograms made when they were all active. As Tony enjoyed the light that the butterflies had created, one of the painted ladies flew away from the kaleidoscope and closer to Tony. It fluttered closer to Tony’s face until they, the butterfly and Tony, were face to face. On instinct, Tony brought up a hand in front of him and waited for the butterfly to land on top of his finger.

As it drifted closer to his hand, Tony smelled the fragrance again that reminded him of home and Stephen. When the butterfly finally landed on his hand, Tony slowly and gently brought it closer to his lips as if to give it a kiss. The butterfly then seemed to whisper, in Stephen’s voice, the beginnings of a poem.

 

_Here I love you. In the dark pines,_

_The wind disentangles itself._

_The moon glows like phosphorous on the vagrant waters._

_Days, all one kind, go chasing each other._

 

The butterfly that was once sat on Tony’s finger joined the others above his head, as another took its place, murmuring the next stanza of a poem that Tony was very familiar with.

 

_The snow unfurls in dancing figures._

_A silver gull slips down from the west._

_Sometimes a sail. High, high stars._

_Oh, the black cross of a ship. Alone._

 

The same pattern repeated, the butterflies taking their spot on Tony’s finger to continue to whisper the poem that Tony realized was Pablo Neruda's poem 18, _Here I Love You_ , from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. The final butterfly landing delicately onto Tony’s finger hummed the last stanza of the poem,

 

_But night comes on and starts to sing to me._

_The moon turns its clockwork dream._

_The biggest stars look at me with your eyes._

_And as I love you, the pines in the wind want_

_to sing your name with their leaves of wire._

 

With the last of the poem spoken, the butterfly departed from Tony’s finger and went to join the others. Looking up, Tony watched as one by one the butterflies fluttered down, landing softly on his nose and cheeks, before they disappeared, slowly fading and only leaving that sweet beautiful scent that once again reminded Tony of home and of Stephen. As the scent faded, Tony went to one of the old Iron Man helmets, and from memory swiped his fingers right over the sensor on the inside, familiar blue light washing over his face. Taking a deep breath, Tony smiled at the helmet and said,

“Well Stephen, that was hot and charming but mostly hot. That voice is to die for. You have me speechless, which is pretty rare, but you always catch me off guard with your butterflies and love poems. I really don’t know how to top that, though through the use of the internet, but mostly through Friday, I found this little blurb: Each butterfly that you see is a reminder that there is always a person who longs for you to see, and that is me. I see you and I see your love. I hope that you will always see me and my love for you.”

With his reply done, Tony grabbed the helmet and walked out of his lab. He knew exactly where to leave it for Stephen. Once at the living room, Tony placed the helmet on the table between the couches and slipped back into his lab quietly.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!!! Kudos and Comments give me life!!!!
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here](https://music-is-the-voice-of-the-soul.tumblr.com) .


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